[Piko_Piko]

Hobbits only live in the shire, which has a temperate climate. They didn't evolve for generations near the equator. That is why they are white.

[LemonLizards]

Same reason as why there are no black ghosts.

[TheHistoryStudent]

Who cares? Did you enjoy the LOTR films? Is having a happy clappy fully multi-cultural world represented in every single film a pre-requisite to enjoying it these days? What about hobbits of different religions?...

The point is... It doesn't matter.

[SOZLAD]

(Original post by fat_hobbit)
Middle-earth is not Europe. It's tolkiens world.

He could have at least included one black , one chinese, and brown hobbit for the sake of political correctness. Even if it meant , that they travelled from 'N africa' to the shire to meet up with other hobbits to discuss the ring and how to defeat sauron.

the day political correctness makes it into literature is the day i'm ending myself

[fat_hobbit]

(Original post by Arekkusu)
Because the Shire is based on an idealistic medieval "little England"?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...3100505AAx2vYc

[Elipsis]

(Original post by NuclearFusion)
Actually it was published in 1937 (and therefore written before then), you're getting it mixed up with the LOTR trilogy

O I see, thank you.

[therishmeister]

Quite simply, the sun in the shire is not hot enough to turn hobbit skin black. Neither is it hot enough anywhere else in middle earth (except possibly Harad and the lands of the desert)
And since the extent of hobbit migration is from just past the misty mountains, there are no black hobbits

[whatsername2009]

According to Wikipedia, the Shire was based on rural England approximately 6,000 years before Tolkien's time, which would explain why it's not exactly multicultural.

[InvisibleGInger]

How come in the films the Orks are cockney English and the Uruk hai have African American voices?

[Foghorn Leghorn]

(Original post by SOZLAD)
assuming that lotr/the hobbit was set in the northern hemisphere (hence all the white people) then it was clearly set in a time before mass migration/immigration (hence the lack of technology that would suggest a more modern time)... there wouldn't be any black hobbits unless it was set in the southern hemisphere

Norther and southern hemisphere:



Note half of africa in norther hemisphere.



Why does it matter op, it's a fictional story. I'm sure most black or ethnic minorities couldn't give a **** about such things and just enjoy the movie fullstop.

Or are you trollin' -_-.

[JollyGreenAtheist]

It's a fictitious world. Who gives a ****?

[fat_hobbit]

(Original post by Foghorn Leghorn)
Why does it matter op, it's a fictional story. I'm sure most black or ethnic minorities couldn't give a **** about such things and just enjoy the movie fullstop.

Or are you trollin' -_-.

No, it's a serious question.

I'm an inquisitive hobbit, you see.

[fat_hobbit]

(Original post by InvisibleGInger)
How come in the films the Orks are cockney English and the Uruk hai have African American voices?

That's a great point - does that mean cockneys and African americans are evil?

[Octohedral]

They had the 'indian' type people with the 'oliphaunts' in the third book, implying that other cultures existed, but I suppose that there just wasn't much scope for multiculturalism what with the wars of men and elves and orcs, and Mordor being in the way.

The Hobbits lived in a temperate climate, making it natural for them to evolve to have less melanin in their skin.

[catoswyn]

(Original post by fat_hobbit)
Well?

Why were all of the hobbits white?

A genetic bottleneck? Rural in-breeding?

[dgeorge]

LOTR: Why u no have black hobbits?

Personally, don't know and don't give a rats ass.

[fat_hobbit]

(Original post by dgeorge)
LOTR: Why u no have black hobbits?

Personally, don't know and don't give a rats ass.

As a black man, don't you feel offended?

[SOZLAD]

(Original post by Foghorn Leghorn)
Norther and southern hemisphere:



Note half of africa in norther hemisphere.

...good point lol

[Schmokie Dragon]

Perhaps the hobbit species/race was native to northern climates? Even if there were other hobbit populations that has evolved in areas where dark skin was necessary to thrive, it is in hobbit nature to stay in their local area. Add that to the difficulties presented by migration when you only have feet, horses and boats and it's unlikely the populations would have met/mixed.

Also, I doubt Tolkien was worried about the PC implications of a single race/colour population. It's pretty silly to take a fictional work out of the context in which it was written.

[Fuzzpig]

Why the **** does he need to have black people in the world he created in his mind? It was not his job to pander to the modern day PC brigade and alter what his imagination gave him.